"Indeed!" ejaculated Mrs. Vanderburgh, as he addressed her, and raising
her eyebrows with a supercilious glance for his plain, unprepossessing
appearance. "Yes, Madam, and glad shall I be to set my foot on Old
England again Hey, Tom, my boy, don't you say so?"

Tom looked off over the sea, but did not speak.

Neither did Mrs. Vanderburgh answer, but turned her face away in
disdain that was very plainly marked.

"Home is the best place, Madam," declared old Mr. Selwyn emphatically.
"Well, Old England is our home, and nothing will induce me to leave it
again, I can assure you."

Again Mrs. Vanderburgh did not reply, but looked him up and down in
cold silence. Old Mr. Selwyn, not appearing to notice, chattered on. At
last she deliberately turned her back on him.

"Isn't he common and horrid?" whispered Fanny Vanderburgh, in the
steamer chair next to Polly, thrusting her face in between her and her
book. And she gave a little giggle.

"Hush!" said Polly, warningly, "he will hear you."

"Nonsense--it's impossible; he is rattling on so; and do look at
Mamma's face!"

He didn't hear, but Tom did; and he flashed a glance--dark and
wrathful--over at the two girls, and started forward, abruptly pulling